Jathedar of Akal Takht Gi­ani Harpreet Singh in his lat­est mes­sage has placed thrust on global co­op­er­a­tion in this hour of in­ter­na­tional cri­sis. For­eign Pol­icy An­a­lyst Tridi­vesh Singh Maini looks at his mes­sage in the cur­rent con­text and em­pha­sizes that it as­sumes sig­nif­i­cance af­ter the Kabul tragedy in which 25 in­no­cent Sikhs were killed. He ac­claims Sewa -the hu­man­i­tar­ian work of Sikh bod­ies and urges Sikhs to in­vig­o­rate their in­ter­na­tional pres­ence and co­op­er­a­tion.

THE ACT­ING JATHEDAR OF SRI AKAL TAKHT SAHIB -THE PROVOST OF THE HIGH­EST TEM­PO­RAL AU­THOR­ITY OF THE SIKH PEO­PLES -GI­ANI HARPREET SINGH’s re­cent mes­sage is rel­e­vant, not just in the con­text of Sikhs, but hu­man­ity as a whole.

While in­vok­ing Sar­bat Da Bhala, Gi­ani Harpreet Singh in his re­cent ad­dress has made some very in­ter­est­ing points. First, that the coro­n­avirus and nu­mer­ous other is­sues, which mankind is grap­pling with can only be dealt with through global co­op­er­a­tion and shap­ing re­sponses within the nar­row con­fines of na­tion­al­ism is not pos­si­ble.

He has pointed to nu­mer­ous en­vi­ron­men­tal, eco­nomic chal­lenges as well as ter­ror­ism when he al­luded to the case of the 25 Sikhs mur­dered in a grue­some at­tack on a Gur­d­wara in Afghanistan cap­i­tal Kabul.

“In this hour of cri­sis, with the Gu­ru’s bless­ings, let us for­get all dif­fer­ences, an­i­mosi­ties, de­bates, each oth­er’s de­fi­cien­cies, and be­come the fam­ily the Guru de­creed,” said Gi­ani Harpreet Singh.

Gi­ani Harpreet Singh, Jathedar Akal Takht Sahib

Show­ing the mir­ror to the Sikhs and the com­mu­nity at large, Gi­ani Harpreet Singh rued that we have in­vari­ably been re­ac­tive in deal­ing with prob­lems. He said, “We nor­mally wake up only when trou­ble hits us. Nu­clear wars, cli­mate change, ter­ror­ism–that re­cently swal­lowed our Sikh broth­ers, chil­dren, and women in Afghanistan – un­em­ploy­ment, in­equal­ity, in­tol­er­ance, and other prob­lems hover over us. These all can only be solved through hu­man so­ci­ety’s co­op­er­a­tion and to­geth­er­ness.”

Apart from crit­i­ciz­ing nar­row na­tion­al­ism, Gi­ani Harpreet Singh also re­ferred to the rel­e­vance of how Sikhism through putting some of its key teach­ings into prac­tice can play a cru­cial role in mould­ing the global nar­ra­tive on im­por­tant is­sues. He has re­ferred specif­i­cally to the in­sti­tu­tion of Lan­gar Sewa -which de­rives from one of the im­por­tant pil­lars of Sikhism – Vandd Chakna -Shar­ing. It em­pha­sizes the need and ra­tio­nale for egal­i­tar­i­an­ism.

Dur­ing cri­sis sit­u­a­tions, be it nat­ural calami­ties or con­flict sit­u­a­tions not just in In­dia but glob­ally, the Lan­gar Sewa car­ried out by Sikh re­li­gious or­ga­ni­za­tions as well as phil­an­thropic or­gan­i­sa­tions is be­ing rec­og­nized. Dur­ing the coro­n­avirus cri­sis, the Sikh com­mu­ni­ty’s role both in In­dia, and over­seas has been lauded as re­li­gious and so­cial or­gan­i­sa­tions have not just pro­vided meals, but have of­fered their Serais –free inns, for ac­com­mo­dat­ing doc­tors, nurses, para­medics and also as quar­an­tine cen­ters for the sick and in­fected.

Apart from this, Gi­ani Harpreet Singh re­ferred to con­tri­bu­tions by Sikh in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions in not just the sphere of phil­an­thropy, but also in con­ser­va­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment in Pun­jab and other parts of the world too.

The Jathedar, who has been mak­ing the right noises since some time on key chal­lenges af­fect­ing the com­mu­nity, ex­pressed the need for Sikhs to fo­cus on unity and not al­low nar­row di­vi­sions mar their work.

“In this hour of cri­sis, with the Gu­ru’s bless­ings, let us for­get all dif­fer­ences, an­i­mosi­ties, de­bates, each oth­er’s de­fi­cien­cies, and be­come the fam­ily the Guru de­creed,” said Gi­ani Harpreet Singh.

The lat­est to join the band­wagon of in­ter­na­tional co­op­er­a­tion is Gor­don Brown -for­mer British PM and for­mer US Sec­re­tary of State -Henry Kissinger. Even the US Pres­i­dent, Don­ald Trump, a staunch critic of glob­al­iza­tion, who tri­umphed on the plank of ‘Amer­ica First’ is him­self seek­ing in­ter­na­tional co­op­er­a­tion in the fight against the coro­n­avirus.

Gi­ani Harpreet Singh’s mes­sage needs to be looked at in the con­text of the global nar­ra­tive, where glob­ally in­flu­en­tial voices are ar­gu­ing for greater in­ter­na­tional co­op­er­a­tion. The lat­est to join this band­wagon is Gor­don Brown -for­mer British PM and for­mer US Sec­re­tary of State -Henry Kissinger. While Gor­don Brown in an ar­ti­cle for the Fi­nan­cial Times on the eve of the G20 meet­ing, ar­gued for greater in­ter­na­tional co­op­er­a­tion -ar­gu­ing for a tem­po­rary global gov­ern­ment, to deal with the epi­demic, Henry Kissinger in an ar­ti­cle for The Wall Street Jour­nal also pitched for greater in­ter­na­tion­al­ism and co­op­er­a­tion in deal­ing with the coro­n­avirus pan­demic.

Sig­nif­i­cantly, the US Pres­i­dent, Don­ald Trump, a staunch critic of glob­al­iza­tion, who tri­umphed on the plank of ‘Amer­ica First’ is him­self seek­ing in­ter­na­tional co­op­er­a­tion in the fight against the coro­n­avirus.

Sikhism is a truly global re­li­gion and its scope can­not be re­stricted to one state or coun­try. While Sikhs have at­tained suc­cess in dif­fer­ent spheres glob­ally, in re­cent years char­ity and phil­an­thropy work in In­dia and dif­fer­ent parts of the world -in­clud­ing con­flict zones like Syria and Iraq and Ro­hingya refugee camps on the Bangladesh-Myan­mar bor­der and the firm stand taken by Sikh in­sti­tu­tions against hate and Is­lam­o­pho­bia in In­dia and out­side -ex­am­ples be­ing the sol­i­dar­ity and sup­port ex­tended to the Kash­miris, at var­i­ous lev­els, post the re­vo­ca­tion of Ar­ti­cle 370, and re­but­ting of Mus­lim hate by Sikh pol­i­cy­mak­ers in US and Canada, have sent a con­struc­tive mes­sage.

The pos­i­tive work of Sikh bod­ies on the Afghan Sikh is­sue in In­dia, US, UK and Canada is a good be­gin­ning but a lot more needs to be done.

The clear mes­sag­ing of Gi­ani Harpreet Singh on the is­sue of ‘glob­al­iza­tion’ is cru­cial, be­cause there will be chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions for the Sikh com­mu­nity -like that per­tain­ing to the Afghan Sikhs, wherein not just re­sources and lob­by­ing with lo­cal gov­ern­ments is es­sen­tial, but ef­fec­tive lever­age with in­ter­na­tional in­sti­tu­tions and the abil­ity to draw sup­port from var­i­ous gov­ern­ments and civil so­ci­ety or­ga­ni­za­tions ef­fec­tively and promptly is es­sen­tial.

In the times to come, Sikhs will need to rise above their cit­i­zen­ship and po­lit­i­cal per­sua­sions and work more ef­fec­tively on the global arena.

Tridi­vesh Singh Maini is a New Delhi-based For­eign Pol­icy An­a­lyst.  His re­search in­ter­ests in­clude Role of Pun­jab in In­dia-Pak­istan ties, the role of sub­na­tional units in For­eign Pol­icy, the Belt and Road Ini­tia­tive (BRI) and Fed­er­al­ism. He is a con­trib­u­tor for pres­ti­gious pub­li­ca­tions in­clud­ing The Diplo­mat, Mod­ern Diplo­macy and The Geopol­i­tics. Reach out to him at @tridi­veshs­ingh